Cong, TMC to part company in civic polls

The fate of the Congress-Trinamool Congress alliance in West Bengal has become uncertain, with both the parties deciding on Thursday to part company for the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) elections on May 30.

The alliance fell apart with neither partner ready to take a smaller piece of the KMC pie of 141 seats. The Congress is unhappy with Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee for offering only 25 seats and has decided to contest in 83 seats.

“If Congress refuses to share seats, we’re prepared to contest on our own,” said Partha Chatterjee, opposition leader in the assembly. There are strong indications that the two parties will go it alone in the other 81 municipality elections across the state this summer.

According to Congress sources, leaving the lion’s share for Banerjee will eventually turn the party into a non-entity in Kolkata. The Congress is also not willing to share seats with the Trinamool in districts considered to be traditional Congress strongholds, such as Murshidabad, Nadia, Hooghly, Malda, North and South 24 Parganas.

There is no question of alliance with the Trinamool. In 2005, they neither won a single seat nor came second in any ward in Murshidabad,” said MP and Murshidabad district Congress president Adhir Chowdhury.